Sleep is essential for good health. Inadequate sleep can lead to daytime drowsiness, exhaustion, and mood degradation, which can have negative effects on one’s health. A reduced amount of sleep each night can also increase appetite, which increases the chance of gaining weight and, over time, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Also, there is a strong link between insomnia and depression.
The struggle to get a decent night’s sleep can be particularly difficult for older persons (those over 65). Even older persons in good health may exhibit considerably disturbed sleep, with a longer time to fall asleep, frequent awakenings during the night, and complaints of insomnia symptoms, according to research.
Sleep problems may be caused by insufficient zeitgebers, or environmental cues that affect when people go to sleep and wake up. Exposure to natural light is the most significant zeitgeber for entraining sleep-wake time. Those who are confined to their homes or are institutionalized and have less time signals for meals, activities, or social cues may have trouble sleeping.
Stress from daily life, musculoskeletal pain, pharmaceutical use, or an environment that is too hot, chilly, noisy, or light can all cause sleep disturbances. Prior to going to bed, visual and light stimulation from watching television or using a computer might cause sleep disruption and delay. Older persons frequently take daytime naps to supplement their nocturnal sleep, which might result in nighttime awakenings and/or early morning awakenings.Healthy people who live in the community sleep better than healthy people who are in nursing homes. This may be due to poor building design, which prevents the living and dining rooms from receiving an abundance of natural light.
The organizational design and culture of nursing homes may also not offer enough opportunity for exercise or exposure to light (such as planned outdoor activities). Less exposure to light and fewer planned physical activity may cause people to sleep all day and all night, which will ultimately lead to bad sleep.
Sedative-hypnotics may be useful in encouraging the onset and duration of sleep, but they also impair balance, which raises the risk of falls, injuries from falls, and hip fractures in older people.Natural light exposure has the benefit of synchronising the sleep-wake rhythm, since light suppresses the production of melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep. Thus sufficient light exposure during the day (for example, mornings and evenings) increases alertness. The onset of darkness signals the release of melatonin and sleepiness. Its peak production during the night helps consolidate sleep.
